Thoughts from a Frozen Lakeside

I can say that I've lived by a lake all my life.  Every town/city I have ever lived in has bordered a lake.  But even with that, I could never say I lived next to a lake until this year and right now.  I look out my living room window, and there's the lake.  I walk twenty-five meters from my building and I can touch the water.  Every day, it's glorious and breathtaking and every day I am amazed by what I see.

And yet, despite my proximity, I had not taken the time to walk along the waterfront trail since the temperatures dropped below freezing this winter.  Part of the reason was that I was busy with school and couldn't find the time to take a break. The other part was the cold.  I was hesitant to venture along the shore where the cold sucks the breath from your lungs and the wind bites and buffets with abandon.   

But, each day, my landlady was out there.  Since the lake froze over and skating was possible, she has been on the ice, sometimes for hours a day.  She'd come home and tell me how beautiful it is and how I absolutely must walk along the shore.  

I knew she was right, and so last week, I made the time to go for a walk, unplugged.  I left my electronics behind, bundled up, and ventured out along the shore.  Words cannot express aptly the wonder of a frozen lakeside.  It's like a completely different world.  As the lake froze, melted and then froze again, chunks of ice were pushed ashore and piled into sculpture-like objects.  They make me think of tectonic plates kissing together and pushing each other up into mountains.  In addition, the rocks and even piers along the water's edge are, at some points, completely encased in layers of ice!

Yesterday morning, I took my friend Jenna out with her camera and we sought to capture some of the majesty.  In a world of go-go-go, sometimes we need that little push to stop-stop-stop.  But when we heed the voice, the results are priceless.  

I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Me looking out over the lake.

Rocks completely encased in ice.

The sun rising over the ice.

Shoreline tree leaning out over the ice-made dunes.

Me standing on the ice next to an encased pier.  

Shot of the harbour.